Leah, Senior Marketing Executive 

Whilst the past 18 months have already seen an increased focus on creating informative content, Google doubled down on this back in August 2022 with their “Helpful Content” algorithm update. This update created a demand to think more strategically about the real purpose of producing a piece of content. Google then released another “Helpful Content” update in December 2022, further cementing the fact that there’s only going to be an increased focus on this outlet in 2023.
Helpful content is content created to provide readers with valuable information that answers questions and breaks down complicated topics into more digestible segments. 

How do businesses know if they’re creating helpful content?
In Google’s ‘Helpful Content’ algorithm update, they specified that they’d be prioritising “people-first content” meaning content should be written in a way that’s concise, informative and not overly repetitive for the sake of keyword stuffing. They also made a point to note that content should not be “written for search engines”. 

Each piece of content should have a clear focus and shouldn’t try to cover lots of unrelated topics in the same article. Try to avoid writing about topics that don’t relate to your business just because you think the search volume would be better, and always write about topics that you can provide real guidance on. 

 

Laura, Senior Marketing Executive 

Personalisation has become a natural part of the shopping experience for both stores and customers. 

We’ve seen many more brands jump on the loyalty scheme bandwagon over the past few years, meaning it’s possible to track what people are purchasing and then reward them with offers that are relevant. It feels much more personal for the customer, and means that marketing efforts for the brands are more likely to hit their target rather than ‘screaming into the void’. 

If the popularity of Spotify Wrapped has taught us anything, it’s that people are expecting brands to know them on more of a personal level than ever before. 

We’re all perfectly aware that this is our own data repackaged and presented back to us in a fun format, but we’re not sure if we really mind. 

More and more brands are picking up on the personalisation-via-data trend and using it to both their and their customers’ advantages. 

Loyalty schemes mean that brands can keep track of what customers are buying and then send them personalised offers based on their purchase history, therefore encouraging them to come back and buy from them again rather than heading to a competitor. 

This all works to make the brands themselves feel more human, as they get to know who their consumers are as people. 

In 2023, as well as building on loyalty schemes, it’s likely we’ll see more personality from the brands we as consumers are giving our data to. We’re already seeing it on social from the likes of Aldi – there’ll be even less corporate language, as people see the value in interacting with other humans rather than faceless brands. Whilst it may not be possible for all small businesses to create loyalty schemes or personalised offers for their customers, there are other things they can do to help their customers get to know the humans behind the brands. 

Social media is the perfect place to start with this, as it allows business owners to give an insight into their company.  

 

Alex, Senior Marketing Executive 

Under the radar but now fast approaching, Google will be phasing out its acceptance of third party cookies for its popular browser, Google Chrome, creating a more secure online experience for its users in 2023. 

Since user data protection laws and customer privacy concerns (GDPR) have come to the forefront of digital marketing strategies, many platforms have started to prepare for the end of the core standard advertising practices concerning online tracking and user behaviour targeting.
Everything from your SEO to pay-per-click campaigns and website analytics will need to be updated to cater for first-party data instead – data your users have provided directly to you. Alongside this, the online tools you’ve had in place to analyse and optimise your third-party data (Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Ads to name a few) will become more trend based than before.
To help ensure your online marketing is as seamless as possible for this update, we recommend you optimise your website, apps, and CMS to become more reliant on collecting first-party data, moving away from the standard third-party practices. 

Updating your website to a first-party data approach will help to negate these upcoming changes. Implementing non-invasive online forms, chat functionality and lead magnets will help to ensure you have plenty of opportunities for lead capturing. 

 

Brandon, Head of B2B Marketing 

The UK State of Digital Marketing Report from LOCALiQ reported only 30% of small/medium businesses across the UK use a form of marketing automation. In 2023, businesses will observe higher costs to generate leads from their marketing campaigns due to factors such as inflation becoming apparent in the digital marketing landscape, an increase in customers taking time to research the best product offers, and decreased ability to create personalised adverts with increased restrictions on data tracking and targeting of internet users with changes in technologies used by the likes of Apple and Facebook. 

Marketing automation is when a business streamlines marketing activities, or leverages machine-learning, so steps taken to capture or nurture a lead can be prompted in real-time, with little or no human involvement. With its quick, adaptive abilities, marketing automation can exponentially increase the amount of leads that come into your sales funnel, conversions, and ultimately increase the return on your marketing investment with lower cost per lead (CPL). 

Marketing automation can seem like a frightening topic to learn and implement for a business owner or marketer. Solutions from companies like Google, however, can make it easier. Google’s Responsive Search Ads are a great example of how a business can incorporate marketing automation into a digital marketing and paid search strategy. 

In 2022, Google sunset expanded text ads and replaced it with responsive search ads. Expanded text ads were static ads and shown to anyone who searched for your business on Google with very little variation. 

Responsive search ads allow Google to do the heavy lifting of creating and delivering more personalised text adverts to users searching for your product or service. When Google does this, it’s a form of marketing automation. With its machine learning and automation technology, Google could have the ability to create 1,000 variations of your paid search ad, whereas you may only be able to create three or four paid search ads yourself.